It appears to be the end of the legal battle launched by Campa Cola compound residents to save their unlawful habitats with the apex court on Monday declining to extend the May 31 deadline to evacuate their apartments for pulling down.

The petition has been kept waiting for hearing in July, said the pleader for the residents.

The hapless inhabitants have been exploring every legal option in order to save their homes. The SC had provided May 31 deadline this year in November 2013, when the residents fought pitched battles with the BMC’s demolition teams.

After its February 2013 order to demolish the illegal floors, it had initially set October 2013 as deadline, sympathetically allowing the residents to keep roofs over their heads in the monsoon.

The apex Court had directed the civic body to demolish the irregular floors of Midtown, Esha Ekta Apartments, Shubh Apartments, Patel Apartments, B Y Apartments and Orchid buildings in Worli’s Campa Cola compound in February last year.

The BMC kicked off demolition of the seven highrises constructed between 1981 and 1989 as the developers had put up as many as 35 illegal floors using excess FSI of 24,779.8 square feet. Buoyed by the SC order, BMC intends to pull down the illegal floors across the buildings affecting over a hundred residents.

In a desperate attempt to save their houses from getting razed, the residents met mayor Sunil Prabhu on Monday, pressing that their proposal to regularize the floors be admitted by the BMC and a middle path be found. They had earlier tendered a draft ordinance to save the illegal floors.

The mayor of the Shiv Sena-BJP run BMC cleverly put the ball in the Congress-NCP government’s court. “The chief minister should bring an ordinance to help these residents who were taken for a ride by the developers. Even if my heart goes out for them, we are bound by a legal framework,” informed Prabhu.